January 2010

December 31st - January 1st - New Years Eve Party

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Ah, what a wonderful memory for us at AHYEAH. Our schedule began at 9:30PM Dec. 31st and we had continuous games and activities right to 8AM Jan. 1st. We had 31 youth attend! The evening began with pizza and we had a snack bar so people could munch anytime they wanted all night. We broke into 5 teams which competed against each other for the duration of the evening (Hillsong Baptist Priests, Boomer Bandits, Jesus Freaks, Awesomenaphobia, and Pink Power). With each activity and game they would earn hundreds or thousands of points. Instead of the prizes being something immediate and shallow (gift cards, mountain bike, or whatever. Not that there's anything wrong with these kinds of gifts), they were future events just for their team. We had a list of event prizes (Hibachi Grill Dinner, Dinner and a Movie, Sonic and Braums, Indoor Rock Climbing, and an Incredible Pizza Party) and the 1st prize winnner would be able to pick first and 2nd place second and so on. This gave the new comers a reason to come back and also placed Jacqui and I in a more personal small group setting with our youth and their newly brought friends.

At 11Pm we had a worship service and devotional which kicked off a new message series based on Michael Jackson's song . . . "Man In The Mirror." The previous series (The Sequal) was very evangelistic and outward. Man in the Mirrow would deal with personal house cleaning, working on ourselves and our spiritual disciplines. The devo concluded with each of the youth writing a letter to themselves discussing where they want to be by 2011. They turned them in and I'll be sending them back to them at the beginning of school this August as a "hey-how-are-you-doing-with-that" reminder. We then ushered in the new year with lots and lots of noise. (Note to self: will not hand out noise makers next time.)

The entire night was back to back, no breathing room games and activities. We went from a Scavenger Hunt to a Hot Dog Eating contest (Adam ate 8 to win!), to The Maze, and Big Ball, Limping Zombies, Dodge Ball (normal and 4-way), Find the Skittle in the Pie, Face Creation, a Skit Competition, and Human Farkle. It was a barage of games.

Then we wound down, and as delerium set in we turned on a funny movie. Good ol' Paul Blart Mall Cop. Needless to say, half of the youth were asleep by the time 8 rolled around.

It was a total success and opened doors to 5 more events but with groups of 4-6 and much more personal.

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January 9th - Prize: Hibachi Grill Dinner (1st prize - Hillsong Baptist Priests)

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First place at the New Years Eve party chose the Hibachi Grill Dinner. Several of the new youth came with us and we all had a blast at Tokyo Garden where they cook the food in front of you and light things on fire and throw things at your face; it's just a good time. We didn't know any Japanese so we just yelled Um' Pa! whenever our cook would do a trick. I think it caught on. :)

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January 15th - Prize: Incredible Pizza Party (5th place - Pink Power)

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For this prize we hauled over to Incredible Pizza and gave each youth $10 of game money. We chowed hearty on their endless buffet and played tons of video games. One youth won more than 1100 ticktes! It was alot of fun and we all walked away with trinkets.

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January 23rd - Prize: Dinner and a Movie (2nd place - Boomer Bandits)

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These fine youth held a crushing, far advanced first place through all of the new year's eve party until the very end. It was a moment when they were surpassed by the Hillsong Baptist Priests. Anyway, we also had a blast at their prize party. We went and ate at Chili's, grabbed ice-cream at Chic-fil-a and went to see "The Tooth Fairy" with The Rock. It was a great evening.

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January 30th - Dinner with the Worship Team

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This was a really fun evening. Jacqui had been wanting to do something special with/for the worship team for months so we finally took them all out to the Hibachi Grill and fed them like kings. Big Fire = Awesome